Hi, it's been a while, but I thought I'd put something up to at least mention the faires I'm planning on attending this year.  I'm hoping to go to the MLC faire in New Ulm, MN.  It's a small one, but it's free, so I'll see how it goes.  Also doing the Siouxland faire again this year (yay!)  My sister is coming all the way from Idaho to babysit for me for the weekend, since myhusband will also be out of town at a race.  Okay, she's also going to visit other family, too, and for longer than just the weekend, but hey, the reason she picked that time to come is because I needed a babysitter.  I dont' think I want to try bringing a 1-year-old to the faire while I'm trying to sell things to customers.  I'm also thinking I might try the Woden Thor Midieval Festival in Viroqua, WI.  I might try to do that one by myself, too, and just rent a period pavilion instead of bringing my own booth.  But I'm still thinking about it.  I'd been planning on doing the Amana faire in the fall, too, but I guess that one doesn't exist any more. :(

We're hoping to move to North Carolina in the fall, so maybe I will get to do the Carolina Renaissance Festival in Charlotte in October/November.

Well, we went to the Minnesota Ren Faire on opening day, and it rained the whole time. But, I insisted on going because, darn it all, I had gotten up early just for this, so we were going. I dressed Owen up in his little pirate costume and his stroller in its pirate ship costume, and off we went. It was still fun, but after a while, the rain just "dampened" our day and we headed home. The free pottery lessons were cool, but I forgot to pick up my poor excuse for a pot before we left. Oh well. Here's pictures of me in my new belly dancing costume (world's first ever nursing belly dance bra!) and Owen in his pirate costume and Owen's stroller/pirate ship.

www.crystaldaggerclothing.com 

My little boy was born on May 31. I ended up having a c-section because he wouldn't descend far enough for them to break my water. He's a little cutie. And sure enough, I was in the hospital over the weekend of Siouxland. I got to go home on June 3 around lunchtime, then spent the next few days moving VERY SLOWLY. Here's some pics of Baby Owen.

I heard about this web site from a customer/friend who gets to go to faires all over the country, the lucky guy. So I thought I'd join. I make costumes for people, so I do get to go to a few faires within a half-day's driving distance from my home and set up a booth to sell costumes. It is a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to this year's faire season. Unfortunately, I will be missing half of it, but on the bright side, it's because I'm expecting a baby around June 2. So no Siouxland Festival for me this year, as much as I enjoyed it last year. I am really hoping to get to the smaller faires in the later half of the season though (September/October). I usually only go to the single-weekend faires, since I have to work my day job (designing and writing user interfaces for web applications) during the week. Here is a list of the Renaissance Faires I am considering this year. Maybe I'll see you at one of them. If you're interested, you can visit my web site, Crystal Dagger Clothing.